Those three words
by ilovezee
Summary: Three words. Those three words Natasha Romanoff longed to hear more than anything in the world but somehow doubted that she ever would ever hear again. At least not now. Spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron! Brutasha fic
1. Chapter 1

Three words. Those three words Natasha Romanoff longed to hear more than anything in the world but somehow doubted that she ever would ever hear again. At least not now. She remembered a time where those words wouldn't make her lift an eyebrow. Just another announcement from Jarvis. But now things were different. Natasha wasn't the same Natasha as she once was. She was an avenger. She was nothing more than the assassin they made her out to be. The Black Widow, trained in Soviet Russia, in the red room. All the nightmares, all the memories of her initiation ceremony were nothing compared to the pain she felt now. Ultron had been defeated, it was supposed to be a time of celebration but Natasha couldn't think of anything less she wanted to do then celebrate. Ever since the quinjet left after the battle of Sokovia, Natasha shut herself off from everyone. It was almost an unspoken rule between the earth's mightiest heroes, all of them knew (even the newer recruits like Falcon and Wanda) what was happening to Natasha and why she wasn't the same anymore. She rarely came out of her room anymore. Even Nick Fury was beginning to become concerned over Natasha's mental stability. So when she was woken up at 2:04 in the morning by an excitable Tony Stark shouting those three words over and over again, she was more than just surprised.

"BRUCE IS BACK!" Tony yelled, throwing himself onto the assassins bed. "What?" Nat asked groggily, not fully awake. "Bruce is back Nat! He's back!" He continued to shout, dragging her out of bed. Natasha froze in shock. He was back? As in back here? Tony waited nervously for Natasha's response, when suddenly she broke into a huge smile and raced out the room with Tony. Upon running down the hallway, two of the bedroom doors opened revealing a very tired looking Clint and a very confused looking Steve. "What's going on?" Clint asked, surprised to see Natasha out of her room, especially at this time in the morning. The Artificial Intelligence interrupted Tony's response as it plotted out the co-ordinates and spoke "Dr Banner is on his way with Mr Fury back to the tower. He is approximately 2.7 miles away." "Thank you Jarvis." Tony replied running down the steps and pouring out a drink. "Guess that answers my question." Clint muttered happily. Natasha and Tony sat down on the sofa, joined a couple of minutes later by Clint, Steve and Thor who was oh so less than happy to be up at this 'god-forsaken hour' None of them could believe it. It had been a massive shock to the whole team when Bruce left. Each team mate mourned his loss in their own way and it was a massive wake-up call to the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Nick Fury that something needed to be done about not only the hulk, but how the heroes were treated and making sure that mass communications weren't interfering among the agents. But now, as all five original team members, 4 of the agents (including Maria), the new avengers and some of the assistant doctors were all called down together to welcome Bruce back, the atmosphere was different. It was like he was almost there with them already.

Natasha started to get impatient after a couple of minutes and made herself a cup of coffee to try and calm her nerves. Everyone knew her and Bruce's situation and understood that she was having a harder time than the rest of them. About five minutes later, the avengers heard car tyres pull up outside and the sounds of reporters trying to take photos and ask questions. Tony, Thor, Clint, Steve and Nat were up like a shot and went to open the door. The minute the door opened Tony flung himself at the scientist in a glomp hug, kissing his cheeks and pulling him further inside. "BRUCE!" Tony yelled, picking him up and bringing him into the bar area where everyone was. "H-Hi Tony." Bruce replied nervously.

Soon everyone was around him, giving him hugs, pats on the back, asking him questions. Everyone apart from Natasha. The tension in the air grew thick as she coughed loudly, and everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her.

She saw Bruce for the first time since he had disappeared all those months ago. He looked exhausted. He was a lot thinner and looked like he hadn't eaten in a while. His curly hair had grown longer too however his eyes were still their normal shade of deep brown that made Natasha a puddle at his feet. He still looked as gorgeous as ever.

He shuffled his feet nervously and looked at her like he was a child and he'd done something bad. They held eye contact for what felt like forever. Dark green reflecting off of deep brown. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she tried to figure out what she was going to say. She was angry. She was so angry at him for making her so vulnerable and leaving the way he did. Yet at the same time, he could look at her once and be completely forgiven. She knew that he had her wrapped around his little finger and always would. Which is why the only feeling she felt in the entire situation…was love.

"N-N-Natasha?"

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	2. Chapter 2

"N-N-Natasha?"

The whole room fell silent. Not even Tony was talking. Steve quickly ushered everyone out of the bar to give them some time alone to talk. Everyone seemed to follow suit apart from Thor who demanded to stay after claming his 'God like instincts' would not interfere with the 'situation of the two star crossed lovers at hand' but after much persuading from Clint, he too joined the rest of the group downstairs in the lobby. It was just the two of them now.

Natasha opened up her mouth to speak but closed it again as she saw tears begin to soak Bruce's face. She couldn't be mad at him. Not now. He needed her. She started to walk over to him, first slowly and then gradually getting faster and faster until she was practically running. She threw her arms around him as he burst into tears, sinking down onto the ground.

Her heart broke at the sight of him in so much pain and before she knew it, she was crying her eyes out too. She sat down next to him and held him close, letting him take his time to cry. They could talk about what happened later, that wasn't important right now. What was important was that he was back with the team and that he was alive and healthy. It worried her how dangerously skinny he was in comparison to the last time she had embraced him like this. She would have to get Tony and Dr Cho to look into that.

"N-Natasha, I'm so s-sorry f-" He began in-between wails, but Natasha was quick to put her finger to his lips and shush him. "Shhhh, it's okay baby, it's okay. You're here. You're alive. We'll talk about the rest in the morning but for now that's all that's important." Bruce nodded but still didn't look convinced. He turned to bury his face in her neck, enjoying the familiarity of the smell of her hair and the comfort of her wrapped around his form. He felt safe and protected with Natasha; he always had done since the day she found him. She kissed along his ear and played with his curls as Bruce began to calm down.

"Hey, why don't we go upstairs and get you into bed. You must be tired." She asked, kissing his forehead gently. Bruce wiped his eyes and smiled, nodding slightly. Natasha stood up and held out her hand for Bruce.

They began to walk towards the elevator when Bruce stopped in his tracks. "What is it?" Natasha asked concernedly, wondering if he was having any second thoughts. "Nothing, it's just, the rest of the group are up there and- and won't they get suspicious if they see us together?" Bruce asked nervously. Natasha let out a sigh and a slight giggle of relief as she squeezed Bruce's hand. "Bruce I-" She began, but then decided against telling him that the whole group knew they had something going on before he left. He had gone through enough today without another thing for him to worry about. "I'll tell you what, if we get off on the 7th floor, we can go up the fire escape and they won't see us." Natasha replied. Bruce nodded nervously and followed Natasha out of the elevator, still holding her hand. Finally, they made it up to Natasha's room and shut the door.

Down the hall in the control room, Tony and Thor's booming cheers could be heard throughout the tower. "YESSSS!" Tony screamed as he high-fived Thor who was also Shouting some Asgaridan chant of joy. "Pay up Hawkeye!" Thor shouted. "Yeah you too, Captain!" Tony added. "Okay fine, you win this round." Clint sent reluctantly as he put the money on the desk underneath the screens monitoring all the security around the tower. "Hey Stark, I bet $10 that sleeping isn't the only thing that will happen tonight between Romanoff and Dr Banner…" Clint said as he put his hand out to shake.

"Oh, you are on!"

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	3. Chapter 3

Natasha woke up, confused for a second as she realised her arms were wrapped around somebody, but she quickly remembered the events of last night and hugged onto the sleeping body tighter. He was back. He really was back. And Natasha was happier than ever. She couldn't even begin to imagine what he had been through over the past couple of months and what had pushed him to come back home, but she was sure that she, along with the rest of the team, would find out all the information later when Bruce was awake and ready to talk.

She felt Bruce begin to stir slightly as he yawned and opened his big brown eyes. He too seemed to be confused by his surroundings at first but as soon as he realised a small smile spread across his face which made Natasha's heart skip a beat. He went to turn over when he realised that whilst he was sleeping, his head had slipped onto her chest, and more specifically, onto her left boob. He jumped up quickly and began to blush, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean t-" Natasha laughed softly and shushed him, gently bringing him back down so he was lying against her once again. He curled into her timidly, making sure he didn't make any sudden moves.

"Hey, you don't have to be afraid." Natasha said, kissing the top of his head gently. Bruce hummed and nodded in response and twirled one of her red curls with his finger. "I missed you, when I was gone." Bruce whispered against her cheek. Natasha smiled down at him and gently pressed a kiss next to the side of his mouth, to make sure she didn't startle him. "I missed you too, more than you can even begin to understand." Bruce smiled at this and seemed to find some reassurance in himself. He didn't need to be scared. Natasha clearly had strong feelings towards him in the same way he felt towards her. He held her close and began to relax, listening to her steady breathing and focusing on its pattern. "I was so worried. I thought you could have been dead!"

Bruce's smile quickly turned into a frown when she said that. He moved away from her a little and turned around to face the wall. "What is it?" Natasha asked gently, reaching over to pull him back over so she could see his face. He tried to stop her but she was a lot stronger than him. When he turned around to look at her he sobbed loudly and attempted to cover his face. She was not having that.

"Baby, oh baby come here." She pulled him into her arms and let him nuzzle into her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." Natasha swore she could actually feel her heart breaking through her chest. He cried out loudly as if he was in pain and grabbed on to her tighter. "What happened to you? Did someone hurt you?" Natasha asked gently as she held his body carefully in her arms. Bruce tried to respond to her but couldn't even finish speaking one word without breaking down all over again. "It's okay. When you're ready. Tell me when you're ready."

He gave up trying to talk and gave Natasha a long look before he slowly started to lift up his top. His gaze remained on her face as her eyes wondered over all the cuts, scars, bullet wounds and countless other weapon wounds she could recognise. Natasha looked up at Bruce, her eyes full with tears. "Who did this to you Bruce?"

"I-I don't k-know."


End file.
